Turkeys, Thunderstruck and the Upside Down: Thanksgiving, Black Friday and UWT’s Game Pass
From “Stranger Things” in “Fortnite” to Thunderstruck in EA FC 26 plus free Xbox Game Pass at the Y this break is a prime grind time for student gamers.
By Syed Huzaifa Bin Afzal
For a lot of students, Thanksgiving break means food, family and a frankly unhealthy amount of screen time. This year, that time off lands right on top of new in-game events and Black Friday deals in some of the most-played titles: Fortnite, Call of Duty, EA Sports FC 26 and the newest Battlefield.
In Fortnite, November belongs to a month-long Simpsons mini-season that turns the island into an 80-player Springfield map packed with locations like the Simpsons’ house, Moe’s Tavern and the nuclear plant, according to Epic Games.
Just before the holiday, on Nov. 24, a new “Stranger Things” collab drops, bringing an Upside Down-inspired Blitz mode, returning skins like Hopper and the Demogorgon and new cosmetics tied to the show’s final season, according to TheSpike. Thanksgiving week in Fortnite is basically Springfield by day, Hawkins by night.
Call of Duty treats Thanksgiving as grind season. Last year, Black Ops 6 celebrated what Activision called the biggest launch in series history with a Thanksgiving Double XP weekend that started Nov. 27 and featured fan-favorite playlists like Prop Hunt and Stakeout 24/7 alongside boosted player, weapon and battle pass XP, according to WindowsCenter.
On the soccer side, EA Sports FC 26 is the newest entry in EA’s football series, and Black Friday is one of its first big Ultimate Team milestones. The FC 26 Black Friday promo rolls out discounted copies of the game down to about $35 on major retailers, according to GAM3S .
It also brings lightning-round packs and special items to Ultimate Team, following the pattern of last year’s Black Friday and Thunderstruck in game events according to SoccerGaming. For FC players, that means a long weekend of checking Squad Building Challenges between slices of pie and watching the transfer market spike and crash in real time.
In the Battlefield universe, Thanksgiving lands in the middle of a reset. Battlefield 6 launched in October and is rolling through Season 1, split into Rogue Ops, California Resistance and Winter Offensive, with new maps, weapons and modes arriving across the fall, according to Electronic Arts Inc. At the same time, it has been featured in platform Black Friday sales on PlayStation, according to GamingBible
All of these in-game events plug into a much bigger Black Friday wave. Platform stores and retailers are cutting prices on games, DLCs and subscriptions, with FC 26, Call of Duty bundles and Battlefield, some of which are already appearing in early deal roundups like FC 26, according to GAM3S. For students trying to stretch a budget, Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday is the moment when long-running wish lists finally look realistic.
You don’t have to buy Game Pass to play many of these titles, at least not if you’re at UW Tacoma. The Center for Student Involvement (CSI) keeps a gaming setup inside the University YMCA Student Center that includes a PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, an Xbox One S and an Xbox Series S with an active Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription funded by the Student Technology Fee Committee.
In an email interview, Daniel Nash, Assistant Director for Student Involvement at UW Tacoma’s Center for Student Involvement, said “we have games on physical media, in our digital library, and in the Game Pass Ultimate library. The Game Pass subscription opens up a lot of options, because there are almost 600 console games on the service.”
Nash explained that any UWT student can reserve console time during CSI’s operating hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Students book two-hour sessions through the Connect2 system using their UW NetID or by walking up to the CSI front desk and asking a student coordinator for help. CSI supplies the consoles, controllers and games, including discs, a digital library and the full Game Pass catalog.
If there’s a specific Game Pass title someone wants, maybe the new Call of Duty on Game Pass or an indie that just went on sale, Nash recommends emailing uwtsi@uw.edu ahead of time so staff can download it before the reservation.
Taken together, Thanksgiving week gives UWT students two layers of access: live-service events and Black Friday deals at home and a free Game Pass–powered gaming space on campus. Whether you’re dropping into Springfield, running from the Demogorgon, grinding Weekend League in FC 26 or test-driving Battlefield between classes, the holiday break is already stacked.
